Thursday, July 11, 2013

Film Review: Silent Hill (2006)

After
Rose (Radha Mitchell) and Christopher Da Silva (Sean Bean) find their
daughter, Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), dangerously sleepwalking and
repeating the town name "Silent Hill", Rose decides to take Sharon to
the desolate town in hopes of finding answers. As Rose and Sharon speed
toward Silent Hill, trying to escape police officer Cybil Bennett
(Laurie Holden), they end up crashing. As Rose wakes up, she realized
her daughter has disappeared. Now, Rose and Cybil delve into the foggy
town on Silent Hill, where they encounter nightmarish creatures...

Silent
Hill is a psychological horror film based on the popular video game
franchise of the same title. Silent Hill features three different
worlds: the Real world, the Fog world, and the Otherworld. Christopher
is searching for his wife and daughter in the real world Silent Hill,
while Rose is simultaneously searching for their daughter in the fog
world Silent Hill, and the fog world of Silent Hill may turn into a
hellish environment when it becomes the Otherworld.

The story
follows the exploration of several key locations in several worldly
forms, including a school, a hotel, and a church. The exploration is
slow yet creepy, and has the same vibe as the video game. In fact, the
film focuses on capturing the same incredible atmosphere the game
creates, and it does this well. Moving at a fairly slow pace, the film
focuses on exploration as much as it focuses on the disturbing creatures
and tense situations; using disturbing visuals and incredible gore
effects, the film is consistently scary. The ending is great, and it
leaves room for perception. The film, like the games, is filled with
symbolism open to interpretation; keep an eye on the creatures and focus
on the story and this will be very rewarding. The story does feel like
it is a little too long and could've been cut down.

The acting is
great from Radha Mitchell, she really captures her character well. Sean
Bean also does a great job, despite limited screen time. Jodelle
Ferland is okay, she often misses with her delivery, but can be forgiven
as she impresses during certain scenes. Laurie Holden delivers her
dialogue in a very robotic manner, and she unfortunately doesn't get any
better until the ending of the film. The music is fantastic, it works
perfectly with the subject and is actually unique, creative, and eerie;
fans of the video game series will be familiar with the soundtrack. The
special effects and makeup are great, the creature designs are
high-quality.

Overall, Silent Hill is a great horror film, and a
fantastic video game adaptation. The visuals, the music, the
atmosphere... it all blends together beautifully to create a
terrifyingly immersive
world; the film is only held back by an
inflated runtime and a few mediocre performances. I strongly recommend a
purchase for fans of the genre or video game franchise, a rental
otherwise.